He normally spends games darting through the paint with a vivid idea in mind, in control yet daring and brash. But Monday night, in a new announcing role for the first half of Boston's 94-80 loss to Chicago, his boldness morphed into hesitancy; he intelligently ceded the broadcast’s point guard role to play-by-play man Mike Gorman. All the hours Rondo has spent playing basketball, all the time he has spent studying it, certainly helped him on the call. But instead of acting in his usual job of setup man, Rondo became the finisher at the end of perfect assists.

At first, before Rondo became more settled, Gorman peppered him with questions. Because Rondo did not seem willing to offer insight voluntarily, the long-time veteran announcer needed to coax remarks out of his rookie colleague. But at Gorman’s prodding, Rondo offered more intellectual conversation than most regular television analysts. He explained that Mike Dunleavy loves to go right, and the Bulls coaching staff does a great job of putting the forward in position to do so. He shared that one of Brad Stevens play calls worked because the Bulls love to tag cutters. Rondo described Kirk Hinrich as one of the NBA’s most physical guards and likened Joakim Noah’s stat-sheet-filling ability to his own.

Rondo’s energy could have been greater and his delivery could have improved. But he got better as he went; for basketball nerds, his two quarters on the mic served as ear candy. The four-time All-Star does not always share his intellect. He sometimes treats media interviews like uninteresting obligations (which they are). We’ve always known he can see the court like few others, we’ve always known him as a basketball genius. Yet the extent of that isn’t always delivered to the public. With Gorman functioning as the broadcast’s hero (is there anyone better?), Rondo settled in and offered part of his mind to the world.

Who knew about all the respect he holds for Hinrich, who he once scrapped with during a playoff series? “He competes,” Rondo said. “I love playing against guys that compete.” He added with obvious admiration that the Bulls guard once defended him, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce during the same playoff game.

That reminds me of a theme.

Competitiveness

Competitiveness, we’ve always known, helps to set Rondo apart. It wasn’t a surprise when he kept pointing to it as one of his favorite qualities. He said the Bulls are one of the two most physical teams in the league. He said all of Tom Thibodeau’s teams tend to be. Rondo repeatedly mentioned Chris Johnson’s hustle, the way the young left-hander chases after offensive rebounds. Rondo said that Boston’s undersized big men deserve more credit for how they have held their own. When asked the most important lesson he learned from Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, Rondo started with two words: “Every night.” As in, they taught him the value of performing and leading on a daily basis.

Rondo offered nothing but praise for Noah, but brought up an interesting story of his former dislike for the big man.

“I think this is 10 years for Noah and I that we’ve played against each other,” Rondo said. “We played each other in AAU and obviously in college, so Noah and I have been battling for a long time. A very long time. About two years ago, we came to an understanding, because we were always going at each other, and we didn’t never really understand why, but I think it’s because we both love to compete. He’s a guy who’s going to bring it every night, and I do the same, but we don’t play the same position, so one game we were at the free throw line and just thought about why we even go at each other. We kind of squashed it. No beef. No big deal. He’s fun to compete against.”

Players on the mic don’t always offer substance. Reggie Miller often sounds like he spent his whole life on hockey skates and announces basketball games without actually watching them. Mark Jackson was one of the best assist-men in NBA history, but, once placed on the air, deteriorated into “hand down, man down” catch phrases. Rondo’s personality wasn’t promised to be revealed. But Gorman kept searching for more of it.

“He’s probably the best at what he does,” Rondo told reporters in Chicago, referring to his partner. “With all the things that you don’t see on camera that he’s doing, he’s doing about 90 things in one minute behind the scenes. … It’s a long work day. I didn’t realize it, but Mike is so good at it. He makes it look easy. And it’s not.”

I found one anecdote particularly fun. During a recent game against the Toronto Raptors, DeMar DeRozan got hot with Chris Johnson defending. Rondo approached his teammate.

And Rondo loved that response. He admired that Johnson embraced the challenge. He seems to want teammates willing to enter a grizzly bear’s den. We’ve known that, of course. But on the broadcast, Rondo revealed some of his honest feelings. That wasn’t completely unexpected (he’s bright and funny), but I also wasn’t positive he would open up like he did.

Again, credit to Gorman. But credit to Rondo too. He took his responsibilities seriously.

The guard received a half-hour-long DVD of television examples to study; and, per Gorman, quoted it at the meeting. Rondo said he received a “long text message” from Brian Scalabrine, a former teammate who tried his hand analyzing games last season; Rondo followed up the text with a phone call to Scal, presumably for more advice.

“He had done all his homework,” Gorman told the Globe. “He was excited about wearing the headset. There’s part of him that’s like a little kid about this — he was genuinely excited.”